Will J.K. Rowling return to Harry Potter?

If you’re among those mourning the imminent release of J.K. Rowling’s new adult book because it is not another Harry Potter story, Potterphiles, take heart: Rowling plans to return to writing for young adults – and she hasn’t ruled out a return to Hogwarts.

That’s right, the author behind the seven-novel Potter saga whose first adult novel, “Casual Vacancy” will be released Thursday, told the press she’s eager to get back to young adult books.

“I think it very likely that the next thing I publish will be for kids,” she told BBC News. “I have a children’s book that I really like. It’s for slightly younger children than the Potter books.”

Though she seemed to close the door on more Potter books, however, she didn’t shut it completely.

“It was murder saying goodbye, but where Harry’s story is concerned I’m done,” she told the BBC. “Now if I had a fabulous idea that came out of that world – because I loved writing it – I would do it. But I’ve got to have a great idea. I am very adverse to the prequel/sequel scenario.” She added, “I don’t want to go mechanically back into that world and pick up a load of odds and ends, glue them together and say, ‘Here we go, we can sell this.’ It would make a mockery of what those books were to me.”

Rowling, who can’t escape talking Potter even while promoting her new adult release, also told the press that writing the “Harry Potter” series wasn’t always easy and she wasn’t satisfied with some of the novels.

“There are a couple of the Potters that I definitely knew needed another year,” she told the BBC. “I had to write on the run and there were times when it was really tough. And I read them, and I think, ‘Oh God, maybe I’ll go back and do a director’s cut’.… But you know what, I’m proud I was writing under the conditions under which I was writing, no one will ever know how tough it was at times.”

Though she seemed averse to the prequel/sequel idea, Rowling did say she might consider what she called “a sidestep.” We’re eager to see what she envisions.

Rowling’s latest novel, “The Casual Vacancy,” a slice-of-life commentary on class warfare and small town politics, hits bookstores Thursday. Rowling has described it as “a contemporary version of what I love, which is a big, fat 19th century novel set in a small community.”

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.